diff --git a/tests/ldap.nix b/tests/ldap.nix
index d8f5af3..b875715 100644
--- a/tests/ldap.nix
+++ b/tests/ldap.nix
@@ -131,6 +131,9 @@ in
       machine.start()
       machine.wait_for_unit("multi-user.target")
 
+      # if the schema is broken, fail fast. helps during development.
+      machine.wait_for_unit("openldap.service")
+
       # TODO put this blocking into the systemd units?
       machine.wait_until_succeeds(
           "set +e; timeout 1 nc -U /run/rspamd/rspamd-milter.sock < /dev/null; [ $? -eq 124 ]"